This thesis examines peace negotiations as a critical discussion, analysing what strategies are used in peace talks and the strategic manoeuvring used in each stage of the argumentative activity...Show moreThis thesis examines peace negotiations as a critical discussion, analysing what strategies are used in peace talks and the strategic manoeuvring used in each stage of the argumentative activity based on the topical potential, audience demands and presentational devices. Following Van Eemeren’s (2010) extended pragma-dialectical theory, the thesis, after establishing the theoretical framework on negotiations as a communicative type, the stages and the participants of a peace negotiation and the peace processes and approaches that are adopted during a peace negotiation, analyses the strategies that are used in each stage of the peace negotiations between the United States and Vietnam, that led to the end of the war in Vietnam and to the signing of a peace agreement between the U.S and Vietnam. The thesis concludes with the identification of strategies used in the U.S and North Vietnam peace talks and a discussion about the degree of success of the strategies used in the U.S and Vietnam peace negotiations that led to the a mutually accepted peace accord.Show less
Effective communication between physicians and patients in bad news conversation is essential, especially when it concerns decisions about treatment and quality of life issues. In this thesis, the...Show moreEffective communication between physicians and patients in bad news conversation is essential, especially when it concerns decisions about treatment and quality of life issues. In this thesis, the central theme is how the semantics and pragmatics of personal pronouns, in particular ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’, contribute to the inclusiveness of exclusiveness of the patient in the treatment discussion and, therefore, influence the discussion of the oncological treatment process. By means of evaluating the pronouns used by the physicians in eleven bad news conversations, the strategic function of this word class is revealed. These pronouns could, specifically, be interpreted as ‘actual pronouns’, as ‘generic pronouns’ (‘enlarged inclusiveness’, ‘rhetorical’ and ‘specific’) or as ‘other’ (dysfluencies, fillers and ‘no code’). The concept of strategic maneuvering that is used here, serves to evaluate the argumentative moves the physician makes to effectively and dialectically present the ‘best’ treatment option, determined by the activity type of medical consultations. In this thesis, the focus lies on examining the ‘rhetorical we’ and ‘specific we’, and the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘I’ in the analysis. The findings suggest that physicians use implicit propositions to seemingly follow the principles of shared decision making, but in fact oftentimes do not.Show less
Deze scriptie onderzoekt de verkooptechnieken van Pretium Telecom, die een leugenachtige implicatie bevatten, door middel van theorieën vanuit de pragmatiek.
